Evenfall

by Yinglung

Chapter 17 – A Dissonance in Heart Strings

Soft snow descended on the capital of Equestria, blanketing the golden and purple spires with fluffy whiteness. Ribbons and decorated pine trees adorned the entire Canterlot, and ponies around cheerfully celebrated one of the most joyful days on the Equestrian Calendar, the Hearth’s Warming Eve.

In a medium-sized building at the outskirts of the capital, a thunderous cheer erupted from the ponies congregated in front of a stage. The actors and actresses bowed as the curtain drew together, signaling the end of a traditional play. The audiences then exited the theatre in good order.

Unlike most who acted in the play, Twilight simply took a small detour via the backstage.

She was in a very good mood. The efforts to bring Discord to her side seemed to pay off pretty well. There was little tension between the chaos spirit and them, and they often socialize together. Even some of townsfolk began to reach out to him in curiosity.

Eventually, she reached a secluded area on the theatre balcony. There she found a draconequus sitting lazily on the seats and, to the shock of the purple mare, chomping on a cheese quesadilla.

Twilight looked at the offending flat bread and gulped.

“Oh ho ho.” Discord smirked playfully. “I hear somepony fears… quesadilla?”

Discord could not hold it anymore, as he erupted into a roaring laughter. “How come? You are a mare who stood up to Nightmare Moon and yours truly, and you tell me you are afraid of this cheese-filled goodness?”

“Yum!” Discord let out, and then shoved the yellow tortilla in front of Twilight’s face.

The purple mare flinched, but said defiantly. “N—No, I’m not!”

Her teeth clattered, “I, uh, love cheese!”

“Then eat it.” Discord grinned savagely.

Twilight widened her eyes at the half-eaten piece of quesadilla. It was not the fact that Discord had eaten it that troubled her, but that it had such a… creamy and cheesy texture, it made her feel incredibly queasy. She cursed in her mind about her irrational phobia of the quesadilla, as she perfectly knew that there was no reason to be fearful of a food item. But her body just wouldn’t listen, and her heart raced like she was chased by a hungry cragadile.

Under the intense gaze from the draconequus, Twilight took the quesadilla with trembling hooves. She grimaced deeply, and it was as if she was at the verge of breaking down, but by sheer willpower she did it. Her mouth touched the quesadilla, and she took a bite out of it.

Discord looked with keen eyes, his neck literally extended like a rubber band to make them close to the front of Twilight’s face. He looked as the purple mare chewed the bread and swallowed the cheese, with a despondent face on par with what he had seen in the Sculpture Garden.

Then, to the astonishment of the draconequus, Twilight fell straight forward towards him, as her heart seemed to have given out on her. Discord had half a heart to just let Twilight fall onto the floor face first and laugh at her predicament, but for some reason, he just couldn’t help but leap forward and catch the purple mare in his arms.

“Hey you sparkly horsey, you alright?” Discord asked.

“… I—I am fine, thank you.” Twilight panted. “I need to face my fear eventually, anyway.”

Discord shook his head. “How come you’re more of a pushover than that Shutterfly? You could’ve just said ‘no’.”

“It’s Fluttershy. And I… I don’t want to make you unhappy.”

Discord raised a brow, and then just frowned. He put the purple mare on the seat next to him and snapped his finger. The half-eaten piece of quesadilla on the floor disappeared, and was replaced by a new box of popcorn in his claws.

“… So why did you come to find me straight after the play? Shouldn’t you be mingling with someone else?”

“I just want to see you.” Twilight smiled.

Discord momentarily widened his eyes, but then he immediately said, “Ha ha. As if. Tell me what you really want to say.”

“No, I really just want to see you and hear what you think.” Twilight said. “And, uh…”

“And what?” Discord asked.

“I want to say sorry about having to arrange you to sit in this corner in order to watch our play.” Twilight lowered her head and said. “We’re sorry.”

“Pfft, as if I cared about what those pitiful ponies think.” Discord scoffed. “They are fickle and inflexible. Can’t stand the sight of even a fellow pony if he has a slightly longer snout.”

“You’re absolutely right.” Twilight said.

“Huh?” Discord was surprised at the purple pony’s agreement.

“Foreigners say that ponies are kind, peaceful and docile.” Twilight held her chin in her hoof. “But they also neglect that ponies can be vicious sometimes. We’re quick to follow, no matter if it’s right or not. We’re easily irritable, often to the point of mass hysteria. We have an issue with herd mentality, not as pronounced as the cows and the like, but still.”

“Mhmm.” Discord tapped his chin.

Twilight thought of a certain somepony, and then slowly continued.

“Ponies also have cutie marks, as a symbol of coming of age and finding real talent. But when you come to think of it, are cutie marks something that are an absolute good? They’re marks that are tied to our destinies. Surely a chaos spirit like you would understand what issues it would entail? For instance, is progress meaningful when there is actually only one way forward? Are we just some sort of one-dimensional beings that only had one trait that set us all apart? Are we still the masters of our fates if we aren’t actually allowed to embrace the changes and randomness, which could only be brought by some degree of disorder? How limiting and boring is that if it is true!”

“Bwahaha!” Discord laughed. “How outrageous it is for that speech to come out of the mouth of Celestia’s student! How blasphemous!”

Discord wiped his eyes, damp from his wild laughter. “You know what, you sometimes don’t seem like a pony to me. I’ve yet to meet any pony that was so on point with why Celestia’s little obedient ponies are a boring bunch. Are you sure that you don’t want to just embrace chaos together with me?”

“Thanks for your offer, I appreciate it.” Twilight smiled. “But to me, complete disorder is boring as Tartarus as well.”

Discord frowned deeply, “Hey! Don’t you dare say that! Chaos is the most fun thing ever!”

“Certainly, if I open a book and can immediately predict what will happen from just the first sentence, I will not read it. But if I turn the page, and find that the plot does not follow logical progression at all like a string of non-sequiturs, it might get a chuckle from me the first time, but it just won’t be funny anymore if it goes on and on for five hundred pages. What’s worse, if I can only find a bunch of random sequences of alphabets and numbers in the book, and they’re not some sort of encrypted messages, it’s going straight to the bin.”

Twilight then turned to the draconequus and laid a hoof on his shoulder, causing him to raise an eyebrow.

“That’s why I’m not looking to ‘reform’ you, I just hope that you can adjust the degree of chaos you bring to the world. Chaos is not inherently bad. They’re like salt. Adding some of it makes our food taste good and makes us healthy, but adding tons of it makes our food inedible. I do believe that our life needs that bit of zip brought by unpredictability, and this is why I appreciate you very much.”

“… You’re a strange pony, you know that?” Discord said.

“Much obliged.” Twilight grinned. “If it makes you feel better, Luna also said I’m a strange pony, almost word for word.”

“What?” Discord exclaimed. “Who wants to be compared to that blue funk?”

“Trust me.” Twilight said. “Luna has a playful side once you know her. Speaking of which, Celestia is also pretty laid-back when it comes to things not related to national affairs.”

Discord narrowed his eyes and huffed.

Twilight looked at him sadly. “It’s hard for you to completely forgive them, isn’t it? I know what it feels to be left in abandon for a long time.”

“How would you know?” Discord said sardonically. “I don’t see you being a decoration in the garden next to me.”

Twilight widened her eyes and bit her tongue, then she looked aside and said. “… Sorry, I misspoke.”

They spent a long time in awkward silence. Then Twilight turned and asked. “So, how’s the play?”

“Boring.” Discord curtly commented.

“Ouch, I’m hurt.” Twilight mockingly grinned. “Is it because it did not mention your glorious reign?”

“Of course! How dare they left out the most interesting era in Equestrian history, brought to you by yours truly!” Discord huffed.

“To be fair, it was a much watered-down and foal-friendly version of what actually happened. I don’t think the princesses would want ponies nowadays to know, for example, that young Celestia was once so vain that she called herself the Unconquered Sun and demanded ponies to kiss her hooves on the Hearth’s Warming Eve.”

Discord heartily chuckled. Twilight then added. “Besides, it was not aimed to be a complete history anyway.”

“Pfft, I’ve done so many important and delightfully chaotic things that a hundred history books would not be able to contain.”

“Like the time when you’re battling for Canterlot, you stole Celestia’s tail, made it into a cotton candy and turned Luna’s mane into an Afro?”

“Haha!” Discord laughed as he slammed the seat nearby with his claw. “How’d you know? It’s nigh impossible that they’d tell other ponies about that!”

Twilight covered her mouth and she realized she had again spoken about something that she shouldn’t know. “Um, I, uh, just think that you’re the kind of draconequus who would do something like that.”

“Then by Chaos you’re right.” Discord said.

Just as Twilight sighed out of relief, Discord suddenly leaned in on Twilight. “You’re not telling it all, right?”

Twilight gulped and backed off a bit. “W—Wh—What telling it all?”

“I don’t know, you just seem to be way too smart and magically adept for a mare your age. And you also know things that you shouldn’t know. I’m beginning to suspect that what I’m seeing is not all of you.”

Discord closed in on Twilight, until he was almost nose to nose with her.

“I—I,” Twilight stuttered. “I’m a studious mare, you know.”

“Pray tell, what book had recorded the memorable scene of an enraged Luna with an Afro mane?” Discord asked. “As much as I hope it really existed and meticulously choreographed the whole thing, I strongly doubt that Luna herself would not burn the book, and possibly any witness along with it.”

Twilight winced. “We don’t burn ponies. It’s too barbaric.”

“Words.” Discord crossed his arms. “You are not answering my question.”

Twilight bit her lips. She had hoped she could avoid this kind of confrontation with him. But Twilight thought it was way too risky to tell the whole truth to Discord, at least for now. She didn’t even tell it to Spike, one of her closest confidante, for fear that it would ruin their relationship. She decided to stall this for as long as possible.

But just as she was brainstorming for another excuse, loud steps and a cheery voice was heard from the stairwell nearby.

“Hey, Twilight, Discord! You’re up here?” Pinkie Pie asked, “What are you doing here, snout-touching and all… I seem to have answered my own question.”

“Wait, what?!” Twilight widened her eyes at the implications, as she scrambled back from the grinning chaos spirit.

“Sweet!” Rarity smirked. “That’s many moons of conversation materials right there.”

“Twi—Twilight.” Spike gasped. “You’re into the spirit of chaos himself?!” He panted as he took in the information. Then he seemed to have calmed down a bit and shook his head. “No wonder you want him reformed and in our library so badly.”

“… What the hay?” Rainbow Dash was close to speechless.

“Just be good to Twi, okay?” Applejack sighed. “She’s a glass cannon. She looks strong, but is also quite brittle, as you may have noticed already.”

“H—Hang on a second!” Twilight yelped. “Discord! Tell them that’s not what happened!” Her face was bright red with embarrassment.

But Discord was simply smirking as he whistled lightly. He clearly enjoyed seeing Twilight being completely flustered.

“Twilight my dear, what’s wrong?” Discord cooed. “Don’t you love me enough to tell it to your friends?”

Twilight bit hard on her lips, as she peeked at Spike’s dumbfounded look. But suddenly, Twilight realized that she might be able to utilize this situation and direct Discord’s attention away from those hard questions.

‘You wanna play, eh?’ Twilight thought. ‘Then I'll play with you!’

Twilight abruptly looked up to Discord, and then swiftly brought him into am extremely tight embrace with her hooves. Discord’s eyes turned wide, as he felt the breath of the purple mare on his neck. Each heaving of her warm chest was felt by the chaos spirit. He looked down into Twilight, who was looking at him with a smirk, albeit mixed with some nervousness. Her gaze was soft and melting, which caused Discord to gulp a bit.

“But of course.” Twilight managed to squeeze out. “Discord darling.”

“Wow.” “Whoa…” Twilight’s friends looked on with shock and amazement. They were originally just teasing the purple mare. They didn’t expect that she would be audacious enough to go through with it.

But this time, it was Discord who couldn’t bear it anymore. The bodily touch and the loving gaze from the purple mare was just too much of a sensory overload for him. He hastily snapped his finger and teleported himself to a far corner of the balcony. There he hollered. “Okay, cut, good take!”

Discord snapped again and promptly teleported himself, this time away from the theatre entirely. The mares and Spike simply looked on with mouths agape.

“… What happened?” Applejack asked.

“He wants to play.” Twilight smiled. “So I play with him.”

“You mean, you and Discord are not, um, ‘real’?” Spike asked.

“No! Of course not!” Twilight blushed. She momentarily wondered where the draconequus escaped to, and lightly chuckled at his discomfort when she turned his own game back onto him. At least she evaded the difficult questions for today, she thought, but she’s still afraid of the day she had to spill it all out with no choice.

Comments

[ferret]

what it feels to be left in abandon for a long time.”